Pastor's Blogs

Saturday, April 12, 2014

The Lord [a]God has given Me the tongue of disciples,
That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.5 The Lord God
has opened My ear;
And I was not disobedient
Nor did I turn back.6 I gave My back to those who strike Me,
And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.7 For the Lord God
helps Me,

The spiritual themes of this passage in Isaiah are “listening for God” and “listening
to God.”

Generally we
first listen for god and then listen to god.IN other words, first, we become aware of God’s presence and experience
openness to God’s love and guidance, and then we can hear and act on a divine
revelation.

Think of the many
ways that God can be present to us, including worship, meditation, in our
personal relationships with family and friends, in our vocations and avocations
(hobby), in nature, in science, in the arts.God comes to us personally in unexpected and surprising ways.

Psalm 31:9-16 UMH 764

Trustworthiness
is the feature of the character of God which Psalm 31:9-16 stresses.

Today
we celebrate Jesus entry into Jerusalem with the crowds shouting Hosannah. Yet
in only a few hours that joy will be turned into horror as we see how the story
turns very dark in the treatment of the one they were praising as they shout
for his Crucifixion.

v.13
For I hear the whispering of many – terror all around! – as they scheme
together against me, as they plot to take my life.

v.
14 But I trust you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.”

Philippians 2:5-11

5 Have this attitude [a]in
yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,6 who,
although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a
thing to be [b]grasped,7 but [c]emptied
Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the
likeness of men.8

Matthew 26:14-27:66/-(27:11-54)

In
the Liturgy of the Passion we meet Jesus, not as the charismatic teacher who
triumphantly rode through the gates of Jerusalem, but asthe one betrayed, abandoned, and facing the
inevitability of death.

Shouts
of adulation give way to “Let him be crucified,” words of consolation to
anguish and uncertainty, and Gospel proclamation to silence.

Jesus
voice fades into the background, overshadowed by a cacophony of unsubstantiated
claims and misguided assertion as the religious leaders accuse him of treason
and convince the people to demand his execution.

The Betrayers:
Judas and Peter
First, we might highlight a seemingly odd couple early in this long
narrative. Peter, we know, will become an influential leader in the early
church. In contrast, according to Dante's Inferno, Judas faces
eternal damnation in the maw of Satan himself.

And yet Matthew parallels their betrayals of
Jesus. Both are one of the twelve. Both are present at the
supper. Both betray Jesus. Their similarities then largely
cease.

Judas meets a
famously untimely demise; that Peter's fall is not irreversible is intimated in
the concluding chapters of Matthew and in the wider Christian tradition.
At the moment when faith was most severely tested and the cost of discipleship
was highest, both Judas and Peter fail.

They remind us
that at the cross there is but a thin line between faithfulness and
treachery. We are constantly tempted to broach that line. We trust
that repentance is always possible, even for Judas. Both Judas and Peter
regret deeply their betrayals of Jesus and yet their lives take wholly separate
directions. What do we make of their divergent paths?

Power and
Corruption: Caiaphas and Pilate
Jesus' execution is a conspiracy of empowered cowardice and derelict
duty. Caiaphas and his co-conspirators have predetermined the outcome of
the show trial and now only need the pretense of "evidence."
They arrange for false testimony but still cannot find a way to condemn the
innocent Jesus.

Ultimately, it
takes Caiaphas' direct involvement to inflate already trumped up charges of
blasphemy, but the office of the high priest cannot put someone to death.
To achieve his ends, Caiaphas turns to Pilate whose primary job was keeping the
peace. Pilate attempts to defuse an increasingly rabid crowd but
eventually defers to their passions rather than justice. When Pilates
washes his hands, he does nothing to minimize his complicity.

The
machinations of politics may be the proximate cause of Jesus' death, but
Matthew's readers are fully aware that God continues to work in the
background. The conspiracy around Jesus' death is a powerful reminder of
the political implications of following Jesus to the cross.

Accidental
Actors: Barabbas and Simon of Cyrene
I imagine that neither Barabbas nor Simon could have anticipated the role they
would play in this story. An insurrectionist, Barabbas could not
have anticipated a pardon after committing crimes against the political
order. An immigrant or sojourner from northern Africa, Simon could not
have anticipated being commissioned to help in the crucifixion of a presumed
criminal. We know little about these two characters. We know even
less about how their involvement in the passion affected their lives. Whether
as an innocent bystander or a jailed criminal, the path of God's Son may cross
ours at the most unexpected moments. How will we react when we are freed
from our prisons? How will we react when we are conscripted to carry a
symbol of shame and death?

The Condemned:
Two Bandits
Jesus dies between two bandits. These condemned criminals must have been
found guilty of a crime far more serious than mere thievery. In some
significant sense, they must have disrupted the fragile social order imposed by
Rome, perhaps by making the Roman roads unsafe for commerce or taking part in
insurrection.

Matthew 27:44 notes only that these two
bandits derided Jesus along with the crowds that gathered to witness a trio of
executions. Unlike Luke, Matthew does not record the confession of guilt
and hope for redemption of one of the two companions of Jesus on the cruel
crosses.

In Matthew, the
portrait is stark. At the end of his life, Jesus dies alongside two
convicted brigands who mock Jesus with their last gasps of breath. At the
end of his life, Jesus faces a virtually unanimous public shaming, a veritable
consensus around Jesus' guilt.

We however know
how the story ends. We know that Good Friday becomes Easter Sunday, that
death does not have the final word but that life reigns through the
resurrection. On Palm Sunday, all indications are that Jesus'
guilt is evident, that Jesus deserves the shame of the cross. Easter is
the ultimate redemption of Jesus' innocence and God's mission.

Witnesses:
Women and a Centurion
One of the most striking consistencies among the Gospels is the shared
tradition that a number of female followers of Jesus persevered to the very
end. Though deserted by the disciples, Jesus is not wholly bereft of
friends in this moment of darkness.

The light of
recognition also emerges from an unlikely source. A centurion--a
representative of Rome's willingness to deploy violence in the maintenance and
announcement of its influence over others --is witness of both Jesus' death and
his identity.

Having seen Jesus' body give out after a
torturous and shameful execution, the centurion recognizes who Jesus truly
was: God's son. Though not a witness of Jesus' healing miracles, his
impassioned mountaintop sermon, or the dazzling transfiguration, the centurion
bears witness to the latest in a litany of crucifixions he has seen and yet
sees and declares that Jesus was no mere criminal.

Heralds of the
Resurrection: Joseph of Arimathea and the Roman Guards
Two final characters set the stage for Jesus' triumph over death. Joseph
helps provide a temporary home for Jesus' body at an important time. The
arrival of the Sabbath meant avoiding both work and the spiritual contamination
emanated by a corpse. In a rush, Jesus finds a not-so-final resting place.
At this tomb, Roman guards are posted to assure that Jesus' body is not stolen
under the pretense of claiming his resurrection. The preemptive denials
of Jesus' resurrection are already set in motion. Some will believe, but
many will not.

In Closing let
us think again on the words of Paul in Philippians 2 v.5-11

8 Being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death [d]on a cross.9 For this reason also, God highly exalted
Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and that every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

He rode into Jerusalem in Great celebration hailed as the
King…..and his life closed in shame and humiliation on the Cross.But we know the rest of the
Story…..Resurrection Morning. Amen

Then
he said to me, “ Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel…..

O
My people, I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will
place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I the Lord, have spoken
and will act, “ says the Lord.

At
the core of biblical narrative is the story of Displacement – of having
wandered a long way from home, and long to return.This is the underlying plot of being cast out
of Eden, of being foreigners in Egypt, of the journey to the promised land, of
the longing of exiles in Babylon to return to the land of their fathers.

I
heard this quote this week.

Or where we find ourselves today with the
anger and bitterness of country folks
just wanting to have a happy church listening to the
Word and doing small missions in the community. The
monster of a world-wide organization, full of egotistical,
self-centered ladder-climbers does not fit into our
scheme of things. And yet, we are required to support
that very same system in which we don't believe nor
understand.

Psalm 130UMH 848

Out
of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.Lord
hear my voice!

How
did we get so caught in the web?

Economists
write of a ‘deepening” recession; diplomats warn of a “deepening” crises;
therapists see patients who are “deeply” depressed.

We
are waiting. Watching and prayingfor
things to get better and they seem to get worse.

I
wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope: my soul waits for the
Lord.

Romans 8:6-11

Our
hope can be seen in Paul’s words. : If Christ is in you….the spirit is alive
because of righteousness.This same
spirit that dwells in you is the spirit that raised Jesus back to Life.

6 For the mind set on the flesh is death,
but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the
mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to
the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and
those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 However, you are not in the flesh but
in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does
not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If
Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is [a]alive because of righteousness. 11 But if
the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies [b]through His Spirit who dwells in you.

John 11:1-45

17 So when Jesus came, He found that he
had already been in the tomb four days.

21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if
You had been here, my brother would not have died.22 Even
now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”23 Jesus *said to her, “Your
brother will rise again.”24 Martha
*said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last
day.”25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he
who believes in Me will live even if he dies,26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will
never die. Do you believe this?”27 She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed
that You are [f]the Christ,
the Son of God, even[g]He who
comes into the world.”

.” Martha, the sister of the
deceased, *said to Him, “Lord, by this time [j]there will
be a stench, for he has been dead four days.”40 Jesus
*said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe,
you will see the glory of God?”

He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus,
come forth.”44 The man who had died
came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around
with a cloth. Jesus *said to them, “Unbind him, and let
him go.”

When your plants look like they are dying….you add water,
miracle grow or something to revivethem.

When your car battery is dead….you buy a new battery.

When you realize that you are dying spiritually you add
the Word of God.

As Christians, we believe in the power of resurrection…

Resurrection and life are central to the meaning that we
make for our lives.

Resurrection confronts us as an urgent call, beckoning us
to consider the possibility that those whom our world deems, socially,
physically, spiritually, and emotionally dead might live into a new reality.

We pray for the power of resurrection in the lives of
persons and communities bound by the graveclothes of war, genocide, poverty,
disease, dis-ease, systematice abuse and systemic oppression.

Releasing persons and communities from the clutches of
death also demands something of us.

Though Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, he urged those
who were alive and well, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Resurrected women, men, and children today also require
caring communities that are willing to nurture and strengthen them until they
are able to walk alone;

to remove the graveclothes of self-doubt, social
isolation, marginalization, and oppression; to tear away the wrappings of fear;
anxiety, loss and grief, so that unbound women, men , and children might walk
in dignity and become creative agents in the world.

We see communities dying around us.We see churches and institutions dying around
us.

What can we do?Believe in the true Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the Resurrection
power that we need.

This
same spirit that dwells in you is the spirit that raised Jesus back to Life.
Think about that.

The
one that Moses faced at the Burning bush gave the following as His name:

I
am that I am.

Jesus
told Mary:I am the resurrection.Do you believe this?

Jesus
is the resurrection of life. Jesus brings life. Do you believe? Amen

But the Lord
said to Samuel, “Don’tlook on his
appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him: for
the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but
the Lord looks on the heart.”

Jesse
brought all 7 of his sons pass before Samuel and God rejected them all.

Samuel said
to Jesse, “ Are all your sons here?” andhe said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.”

Samuel told
Jesses to send for him.

So the runt
– David was brought in and the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him: for this is the
one.”

A man after
God’s heart.

We can put
on our false faces before one another But God knows the intent of our heart.

In the life
of the church, too often conflicts erupt, opportunities are missed, people are
hurt and/or disheartened, and the community takes several steps backward
because the boundaries of our covenant and purpose are ignored and broken.

Psalm 23
UMH 754

The Lord is
my shepherd I shall not want…..this should be our daily motto. Meaning that we
put our complete faith and trust in the Lord to take care of us.k

The shepherd
walks with you in the midst of your trials.The darkness is not changed, but rather you are changed when you receive
the gift of his presence.

Ephesians
5:8-14

Live as
children of light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and
right and true.

Sleeper;
awake!

Rise from
the dead;

And Christ
will shine on you.

MatthewJohn 9: 1-41

“As long as
I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Blind man’s
eyesight was restored.

The Jews
began to question him wanting to know who this man was that healed him.They
drove him out of the synagogue.

Jesus heard
that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe
in the Son of Man?” He answered, And who is he , Sir?Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”Jesus said, I came into the world for
judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become
blind.”

The
importanceof hearing and seeing
comes into full relief when Jesus’ words in 10:1-21(Read today) are heard along
with the healing of the blind man.In
this discourse Jesus integrates seeing and hearing with believing.Jesus reiterates that those who Know
him, his sheep, hear his voice and follow him.In the Gospel of John, such “knowing” articulates
relationship.In the figurative
language of the sheep and the shepherd, Jesus recasts the importance of seeing
and hearing by creating new images for what has already occurred in chapter 9
between the blind man and Jesus.

God looks at
our hearts. Even though we may not be completely whole on the outside God sees
the intent of our heart.Our daily
prayer should be ‘help us see others as you see them…Amen

Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to
kill us and livestock with thirst?

The motif of thirst connects the first
reading with the reading from John.In
the wilderness, the experience of thirst leads to a lack of trust in the
Lord.In John, routine thirst leads to
an encounter with Jesus.

A dialogical reading of the two
passages affirms thirst as both physical deprivation and a spiritual
need (understanding thirst as a metaphor for spiritual longing).Thirst reminds the reader of vulnerability
and need, for which we should trust God.

Thirst (physical or metaphorically) can
lead to either a lack of faith or an experience of divine presence. The Church
has a responsibility to minister to people dealing with physical deprivation
and spiritual longing.

Human nature is so perfectly exhibit by
the Israelites.We tend to find things
to gripe about no matter what is going on.“they are almost ready to stone me,” Moses admits.

Massah and Meribah is summed up as
indicating the question of the people, “Is the Lord among us or not?”Hopefully, that should be a rhetorical
question: the answer is YES.And if God
is among the people, then the people should respond with faith.

God did not abandon the Israelites to
the desert.There was manna to eat and
water from a rock.

One day at a time, with just what they
needed, they began to make their way through the wilderness.One day at a time, they got up and ate.They drank.They lived.They breathed. Nothing
exciting or glamorous.Just one day at a
time.

Even though we may think we are walking
in circles at times.God is with us. One
day at a time.

Psalm 95UMH 814

For the Lord is a great God.

v.8 Do not harden your hearts, as at
Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness when your ancestors tested
me, and put me to proof, though they had seen my work.

For forty years I loathed that
generation and said. “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not
regard my ways.

At the turning point in verse 7, the
psalmist remarks, somewhat ominously, “ O that today you would listen to his
voice!The addressee changes from “us”
to “you”.The speaker does not refer to
“the Lord” but instead speaksas the
Lord in first person.

Here is where we begin to squirm a
bit.Although the psalm goes on to speak
to the ancient Hebrews who did not listen to the Lord, we know full well that
we are guilty of the very same shortcomings.

The first part of the psalm calls for
eyes to witness and voices to sing; the second part of the psalm calls for ears
to listen and feet to follow.All the
while this psalm pints to a people who have failed to follow.

If God is so good and worthy of praise,
and if we have seen God’s glory and were nodding our heads during the first
verses of this psalm, why is it that we have so often failed to listen or to
follow?

This is a good psalm for Lent.This psalm begins with a joyful noise, but
then descends into the darkness of our own guilt as we face our failure to
follow.Lent is a season of
accountability.

If we practice doing relatively small
things in our power right now, we will grow as Christians so that one day we
will be able to do those things that seem impossible to us today.

Lent is a time for us to strive to do
better.Do Not Question God’s Wisdom.

Romans 5:1-11

Therefore, since we are justified by
faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ….

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled
to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled,
will we be saved by his life.

Through Christ, God reveals the nature
of the divine love --------a self giving love that suffered death on the cross
for us, even though we do not deserve this love.

Through faith we understand perfection
is not necessary for us to be loved by God.We do not need to justify ourselves.We are Loved, and that is all the justification we need.

We are in relationship with God, not
because of our efforts, but because of God’s loving action. Through faith we
enter into that relationship and discover peace, hope, and perseverance, even
in suffering

John 4:5-42

A Samaritan woman came to draw water
and Jesus said to her: “Give me to drink.”

How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink
of me, a woman of Samaria?

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the
gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me to drink,” you would
have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

v.27 Just then his disciples came.They were astonished that he was speaking
with awoman….

Rabbi, eat something….

But he said to them, “I have food to
eat that you do not know about.

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do
the will of him who sent me and to complete His work.

This is a daring conversation for the
woman at the well: Jesus is a Jew and a man.She and Jesus cross boundaries to talk.

Even though Jesus offers living water,
he first asks the woman for a drink.He
asks her to give him something, even as he offers the immeasurably valuable to
her.Give and take.God seeks that kind of relationship with us.

It must be a pleasure to talk with
someone who catches on so quickly!He
even reveals to her that he is the Messiah. The disciples don’t understand
him:They don’t get that he is speaking
in images when he talks about food.They
just don’t get him.

The Samaritan woman does.She goes back to the city, illuminated by
their short conversation, and she spreads the word, and it has to be with an
air of certainty that convinces people, or at least makes them curious, because
they go out to meet Jesus, and he stays and wins hearts and souls.

Even so, the next day, that woman must
go back to the well, for the regular, ordinary water needed in her household,
where she lives with whoever isn’t her husband.The work of being alive goes on, day after day.And although Jesus told her the hour was
near, WE are still waiting.

Don’t Question God’s Wisdom!

My Word that goes out from My mouth; it
will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the
purposes for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

For the Word of God is living and active.
Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and
spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Paul wrestled with this same question. Yet his question
centered around more theological issues. Like how an intelligent person can
walk outside, look at nature in all its beauty, and walk away saying that it
was created by a big bang, billions & billions of years ago.

As dumb as it is to believe in anything apart from the
Creation story in Genesis, Paul says that's not the dumbest conclusion man has
come to. Man's stupidest conclusion is to reject the cross by saying that it
was foolish to think that God, who is spirit, could become a man, and then die
on a cross as the lowest of criminals to provide an atonement for all of
mankind's sin-v. 18.

To be saved doesn't just mean that you believe there is a
God. Salvation is not even based on if someone believes that Jesus was the Son
of God? Satan and his demons know this. The only belief that will save someone
is if they accept Jesus dying on the cross as their sin bearer, going to hell
in their place, and being raised 3 days later. Those are the 3 components that
make up the message of the cross.

Don’t Question the wisdom of God.

If Jesus is not the Lord of your life, today is the day
of salvation. Ask Jesus to come into your heart and invite Him to be the Lord
of your life. Amen

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your
father’s household to the land I will show you.

4 So
Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went
with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran

God tells Abram to go to a place he has never
been before – go from your country, go from your kin, go from your father’s
house – go and I will show you where.So
Abram goes.We really don’t know a lot
about Abram. Was he a righteous man as Noah? Why would God call him?

In looking back through the scriptures God
called the least likely to follow.Even
today we may hear of a person being called to ministry and we say “ why would
God call that one?” Even when God calls us to do a job our first response
usually is I am not equipped.

We see that God does not always call those
with the best credentials or the shining pedigrees. But we do see again and
again, that a faithful response to God’s leading results in ablessing of gifts and talents, of learned and
acquired skill sets sufficient for the task to which an individual is called.

Our own experience and the witness of
Scripture concur that the one who calls is the one who equips.The one who equips always leads the called to
more complete expression of the persons they were created to be.

Consequently, if the call is of God, the
answer to all the above questions is YES.A faithful response is the embrace of what God has already called into
being – a newness of being – and the release from what is known for what is
promised.

A faithful response is neither forced nor
coerced, but a step freely taken toward our true selves. The notion of
embracing newness and relinquishing what has been connects this text with
today’s Gospel, the story of Nicodemus (John 3:1-17). Abram was born into a new
reality that God called into being.He
tookThe Step of Faith.

Psalm 121UMH 844

1 I
lift up my eyes to the mountains—where
does my help come from?2 My help comes from the Lord,the
Maker of heaven and earth.

The psalm appears to be set in the context of a
pilgrimage.The psalmist looks to the
hills, which may be Mount Zion, God’s holy mountain and the place of the temple.Presumably it is not an easy journey, and the
opening verse cries out a stark question, “From where will my help come?” On a
gut level, we know what it means to lift our eyes to the hills in search of
help. Inevitably we have all made this cry at challenging times in our lives.

It is a hard to accept that the Lord is my
keeper as it is to accept that the Lord loves me, but these two facts are
intertwined. That is the key to understanding not merely what the Lord does for
us, but why God’s love is the very foundation of God’s trustworthiness.God loves us, and therefore God keeps us.

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Abraham
Justified by Faith

4 What then shall we say that
Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If,
in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but
not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited
to him as righteousness.”[a]

17 As
it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”[a] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he
believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that
were not.

Paul provides a scriptural proof at verse 3 to demonstrate
that the faith of Abraham is the means through which he was credited with
righteousness: “Abram believed God, and it was reckoned to him as
righteousness”.

In verses 4-5 the gift of righteousness is contrasted with
the payment of earned wages, which are obligated because of “works”.In contrast, Abram’s righteousness was not
something he had earned by reason of his good deeds; rather, it was something
freely given to him, solely on the basis of his faith.

An implicit message in the church and an explicit message
in our society conspire to lead people to believe they will be entitled to
God’s love and worthy of God’s love only if they earn it.

The heart and soul of this text is the proclamation of the
unmerited grace that comes from God to us.

Think about this:

The God revealed in Jesus, bringing salvation to all who
will accept it, is the same God revealed in Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and
Esther.The unique nature of Jesus will
be seen as a unique revelation of the One God who is also revealed in many
other places and ways.Salvation, then,
is through the revelation and work of God.

If Paul is correct in saying that Jews and Christians share
the same faith and are at least spiritual descendants of Abraham, then the
first tragedy was the division between the synagogue and the church.Clearly the differences are perceived as
greater than any common heritage.

Orthodox Judaism saw Abraham as keeping the law by
anticipation and therefore in accord with the Mosaic tradition: Paul saw
Abraham as preceding the law and therefore saved by faith.The common thread is interpreted differently,
depending on the community in which it is read.

Ignoring differences of dumbing down belief to avoid
conflict does not provide sufficient intellectual support in today’s world.

What appears to be needed is humility, recognition that
“our truth” may not be the ultimate truth about God:a commitment to unity,recognition that love does not depend on uniformity
but welcomes a diversity of gifts; and a priority for mission, coming together
with all our diversity, sharing gifts to reach out to those who need Good News.

God’s grace is evident in God’s choice to love us, which
sets us in a right relationship with God.

So, we are inspired to say that the Christian life does not
consist of doing good works to earn God’s love; rather, and wonderfully, it
consist of doing good works because of God’s love and our love for Him and what
He has done for us.

John 3:1-17

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

3 Now
there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus
who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from
God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with
him.”

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the
kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”

In John’s gospel there are two major images:one is light and the other is darkness.Nicodemus emerges out of the night’s darkness, seeking light from the
teacher he believes to be sent from God.

Just as suddenly as he appears, Nicodemus disappears back into the night
from whence he came.Before he does so,
Jesus tells him one must be born anew in order to see the kingdom of God, and
the last we hear from Nicodemus is, “How can this be?” (V.9).

5 Jesus
answered, “Very
truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of
water and the Spirit.6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit.7 You should not be surprised at my
saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’

9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

10 “You
are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?\

A few verses down….

Those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may
be clearly seen that their deeds have been done of God” (V.21).IT will take Nicodemus a long time – until
19:38-42 to come once and for all out of the night and into the light.

What does it mean to be born from above and to believe in
Jesus?

To be born from above by water and the Spirit, to believe in
Jesus, is to leave the darkness and to come into the light (v.19).

What does it mean to live either in darkness or in
light?Those who live in the darkness
and hate the light do so because their evil deeds will be exposed. (v.20)To come into the light – to be born from
above – is to do “what is right”(21), to follow the one who is himself “the
way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6).

For many Christians, the gospel is summarized by the words
in John 3:16

16 For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life..

Some Christians. However, understand faith or “believing in
Jesus” to be simply what one does with one’s mind.

In John’s Gospel, being born from above and believing in
Jeus are clearly not so much about what one does with one’s mind as about what
one does with one’s heart and one’s life.

Those who do what is
true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have
been done of God” (V.21).

In John’s Gospel believing and doing are inseparable.Nicodemus lives in the darkness and the
shadows of this story until its conclusion, when he emerges Publicly with
Joseph of Arimathea, who is also a “secret disciple,” to bury Jesus.

Have you only assented with Your Mind the Jesus is Lord.

Or have you Taken The Step of Faith and Accepted Jesus as
Your Lord Publicly.

You may eat
freely of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.

But the
serpent said to the woman, “ You will not die; for God knows that when you eat
of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil.

This story
is often interpreted theologically in terms of temptation, “fall,” sin, and death.

Human kind
is placed in the garden of God’s creation to “till and keep it.”The Creator who gives life also gives meaning
and purpose to life.We are called to
serve as caretakers in God’s creation – STEWARDS of a world we did not make and
can receive only as a gift held in trust.

The freedom
of God ordains is expansive but not boundless.There are limits to the exercise of our creaturely freedom.

What is the
“tree of knowledge of good and evil,” and what becomes of the threat that “in
the day that you eat of it you shall die?”In the first serious theological conversation in Scripture, the woman is
asked by the “crafty” serpent, “ Did God (REALLY) say, “ You shall not eat from
any tree in the garden?” (V.3:1).

The way the
question is asked makes God seem unreasonable. The Seed of Doubt is planted.

Eve goes
beyond what God said.When we add to the
Word of God or take away from the Word of God that is where we begin to shift
away from the Will of God.

Eve
responded: “We may eat of the frut of the trees in the garden; but God said, “
You shall not eat of the fruit that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die”.With the harmless bit of exaggeration the
serpent strikes.“ You will not
die…..Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil” (3:4-5).

“Good and
Evil” is not a matter of ethical discernment.It is the desire to make ourselves the judges of good and evil, assuming
for ourselves the role of God. ( I m gonna have it My Way.)

What does God
Know?Teenagers think : What do my
parents Know?What does my boss
know?What does my husband know?You get the picture.

Think for
yourself. Act for yourself.Do not let
anyone, even God, define for you what is good and evil.

Too often it
leads not to wisdom and authentic liberation, but to messy divorces, to
shouting matches between parents and children, to willful disregard of the
needs and feelings of others, to chaos in the church, and to degradation of the
environment.

One does not
have to look far to find examples of how our life together is undermined by the
refusal to accept the gracious limits of Gods truly liberating grace.

The Torah
(instruction) of God is intended for the well-being of the “image bearing
creature” to whom God has entrusted the stewardship of creation.

There is a
story here that makes for the flourishing of life in community, there is
already in the story a note of gospel that echoes throughout Scripture.

In God’s
sovereign freedom, God responds to human disobedience, not with the full weight
of judgment, but with Unexpected Mercy.

Where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more (Rom. 5:20)

If the Son
makes you free, you will be free indeed (John 8:36)

Only do not
use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become
slaves to one another (Gal. 5:13).

Psalm 32 UMH 766

From the
Message

Let me give you some good
advice;I’m
looking you in the eyeand
giving it to you straight:

9 “Don’t be ornery like a horse
or mulethat
needs bit and bridleto
stay on track.”

10 God-defiers
are always in trouble;God-affirmers
find themselves lovedevery
time they turn around.

If because
ofthe one man’s trespass, death
exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive
the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in
life through the one man, Jesus Christ

Paul is
concerned to identify the nature and the extent of the human dilemma.Human beings are beset with sin and death in
a way that runs both deeper and wider than we might expect.

Having
establishedthat “all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God” (3:23); taken up again in (5:12), Paul is now
concerned to give an account of the full scope and effects of sin.

His main
point is that sin was introduced and somehow passed on to the entire human race
by Adam, our first parent, so that we were all “made sinners” as a result of
Adam’s Disobedience.

Therefore,
Sin is the result of the first sin of Adam.This is Paul’s chief statement of what Augustine called“ Original Sin”.John Wesley also points out this fact called
“Original Sin”.

Christ did not die just for us to make some
improvements.

He died to
save us from a mortal disease that lies at the core of our being, affecting all
of our thoughts, words, and deeds, and corrupting human society as a whole.

Matthew4: 1-11

Then Jesus
was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

It is
written…..

1) One does
not live by bread alone, but by every Word that come from the mouth of God.

2)Do not put
the Lord Your God to the test.

3)Worship
the Lord your God, and serve only him.

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited
on him.

Jesus used
the Word of God to defeat Satan during his temptation. Jesus warned us of
Satan’s tactics in the parable of the sower ( Mark 4:14-20):

14 The sower soweth the word.

15 And these are they by the way side,
where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and
taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

16 And these are they likewise which are
sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive
it with gladness;

17 And have no root in themselves, and so
endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for
the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

18 And these are they which are sown among
thorns; such as hear the word,

19 And the cares of this world, and the
deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the
word, and it becometh unfruitful.

20 And these are they which are sown on
good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some
thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

The Word of
God has the power to bring itself to pass. Satan tries to steal that word out
of your heart. He has five things he uses to steal the Word from you –

Persecution,
2)affliction, 3)the cares of this world, 4) the deceitfulness of riches, 5)the
lusts of other things.

That one,
the evil one, the serpent, Satan, the Devilis still whispering his enticing suggestions to Christian people and
institutions today. Many find his ideas attractive.

One of the
greatest deceptions of satan is to convince you that he don’t exist. That
message is being preached in many pulpits. That the devil and hell do not
exist.I have heard that message over
and over in the 12 years I have been involved in churches in Montana and
Wyoming.

Lenten
penitence engages the dark places in our lives that we may come face to face
with them, name them, understand them, and seek forgiveness for them.It is not about guilt. It is about freedom
from the control that our fears and insecurities have over us all, about the
amendment of life and new beginnings.

Victory
belongs to those who will follow Jesus through temptation and fight the devil
with the Word of God.Jesus showed us
how to have that victory in our lives.IT is written.